I think creativity is a capability of human being. When we're born, we're - all of us has this capability. But part of us forget to use it.
— Erno Rubik
When you are studying from a book, lots of people go straight to the end to look for the answers. But that's not my style. For me, the most enjoyable part is the puzzle, the process of solving, not the solution itself.
My main profession is architect.
To solve the Cube, you need special skills and understanding. For example, pattern recognition is very important to solve the Cube.
The Cube is approximately - it's around the same age as the Internet, and in that time, we had no personal computers yet.
Complex things, if you don't understand them, it seems complicated. If you understand them, and we know how to handle it, it became simple.
In the mid-1970s, I was teaching design at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest.
The Cube was a wonder - a wonder for itself and a wonder for myself. To me, it was much more strange than to anybody else.
Yes, but with the Cube there are many flashes, there are many aha's.
The problems of puzzles are very near the problems of life.
I wanted nothing else than to make the object as perfect as possible.
This was such an extraordinary situation that I simply could not accept it.
It was tremendously satisfying to watch this color parade.
We turn the Cube and it twists us.
Once I completed the Cube and demonstrated it to my students, I realized it was nearly impossible to put down.
I do not truly consider myself an icon, but the Cube has been quite successful.
If you find a solution with the Cube, it doesn't mean you find everything. It's only a starting point. You can work on and find something else: you can improve your solution, you can make it shorter, you can go deeper and deeper and collect knowledge and many other things.
I love the simplicity of the Cube because it's a very clear geometrical shape, and I love geometry because it's the study of how the whole universe is structured.
The Cube is, at the same time, a symbol of simplicity and complexity.
If you are not able to do something, that is true for the present, not for the future. All the time there's a chance to go a step further. Not to be frustrated.
I didn't give that name, the Rubik's Cube, and I called it Magic Cube because it's magic.
I feel more like a father to a child: my Cube inspired thousands of 'twisty puzzles,' and I'm amazed how it continues to excite new generations.
I don't want to say too many words about the magic of the Cube, because it's basically a mystery. It's like the Mona Lisa smile. It's both complex and very simple at the same time. And, well, people like it. Even today.
The Cube can seem alive as it heats up in your hand. The fact that each face of the Cube is made of three layers of three blocks has an important meaning.
A good puzzle, it's a fair thing. Nobody is lying. It's very clear, and the problem depends just on you.
I'm still the same person, thinking the same way, so it's possible I will invent something.
I did not plan to make the Cube.
But for me, it was a code I myself had invented! Yet I could not read it.
I was somewhat out of place among my classmates; I could not be as bohemian as they were.
And, not only in Budapest. I worked very closely with a very powerful government organization, which shall remain unidentified, to develop the mass marketed version of the Cube.
In my teaching, I enjoyed creating models to clearly communicate my thoughts.
If you are curious, you'll find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.
I am really not a speedcuber. My best time when I was practicing was about a minute. Usually people say if you can create a piano, you must be a good piano player, but it is not true. They are different type of human activities and need different capabilities.
If you have many children, the first one is always different because you can only have one child who is the first. They have different natures and talents for you to love.
I did not plan... the Cube as a competitive item.
I'm wondering how people are so creative, and how many things were born out of and inspired by the Cube.
I'm calling the Cube, it's a piece of art. At the same time, it's an intellectual task as well.
I was searching for a way to demonstrate 3D movement to my students and one day found myself staring into the River Danube, looking at how the water moved around the pebbles. This became the inspiration for the cube's twisting mechanism. The fact that it can do this without falling apart is part of its magic.
Throughout history, people have enjoyed playing both silly and clever games.
The Cube is an imitation of life itself - or even an improvement on life.
Our whole life is solving puzzles.
Now, after the Cube, I still don't have any plans to make anything like it.
I want to try to keep my life the same.
Like after a nice walk when you have seen many lovely sights you decide to go home, after a while I decided it was time to go home, let us put the cubes back in order. And it was at that moment that I came face to face with the Big Challenge: What is the way home?
Usually we are saying only part of the truth.
But thanks to my invention, my capitalist friends and I were able to bring the government to its knees.
I've always been passionate about geometry and the study of three-dimensional forms.
